


Semi-mortality

by Word_Devourer



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: One-Shot, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 13:15:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16175825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Word_Devourer/pseuds/Word_Devourer
Summary: Channeling a fundamental force has its benefits, vis-à-vis surviving the impossible.  Sure, there’s the obvious, like shrugging off blows that would break the average person’s rib, and utterly ignoring the heights you can jump to.  There’s a bit more to it, though.Or:  A short look at the results of massive damage against the wielder of a Miraculous.





	Semi-mortality

**Author's Note:**

> Very short, but I wanted to write it, because I'm a sucker for that semi-immortality stuff.

The first time they discover it is when Chat Noir, in the middle of a cocky line, takes a spike directly through his chest.  Ladybug screams, but he doesn’t.  He staggers, looks down, and promptly rushes at the villain.  The spike disintegrates, and where it pierced him is just the burning black energy of a Cataclysm.    Later, after the fight, he detransforms, and staggers at the dull ache in his chest.  He doesn’t say anything when Plagg requests triple his usual cheese, just nods, and does it.

 

The next one to face it is Ladybug herself, when a villain with scissors for hands gets past Chat Noir.  The first slash bleeds, and the next, and the next.  When Chat Noir’s baton interrupts their fight, she’s a bleeding mess.  She tries to grit her teeth and fight through it, but buckles under the pain.  Looking up, she sees Chat Noir, fighting a losing battle, and knows that he’ll suffer the same fate as her if she doesn’t get up.  She doesn’t think, and simply stands, not noticing the glow of her wounds sealing.  There is no triumphant cry of ‘Miraculous Ladybug’ that day, and she is so glad that the villain destroyed so little.  Tikki takes it in her stride, but warns her to be careful.

 

Carapace doesn’t bleed, and his bones don't break.  He bruises, and shudders under every strike, but nothing does lasting damage.  When a quartet of identical bruisers corner him alone, the others rush to his defense, but when they finally fight the Akuma away, he shudders, and stands up from the ground.  He cracks his neck, and straightens his shield.  When the fight is finally over, he still feels every bruise, and Wayzz tells him, slowly stretching his aching joints, that this is the price they pay to help their teammates.  It’s worth it.

 

Rena Rouge never gets truly _hurt_.  The entire team _knows_ they saw a blade coming for her guts, ready to leave a nasty gash _at best_.  But she wasn’t there.  She was behind the villain, preparing a strike.  They can’t tell if she was there the whole time.  The next time, when she pulls the same trick a half-dozen times in quick succession, they begin to wonder if the Fox Miraculous is far more powerful than they thought.  Of the four of them, only Rena Rouge herself sees Trixx afterwards, shuddering and shivering, sometimes even flickering out of view.  He’s too warm for it to be anything but a fever, and he tells her that someday she’ll learn how to do it without his intervention and the ‘annoyance,’ as he puts it, that he’s experiencing won’t happen then.  That’s the day she realizes how far she has to go as a hero.

 

Much, much later, they discover a Miraculous that _doesn’t_ protect its wielder.  It’s rare for them to truly _damage_ a villain, but any mark they inflict slowly heals over with a soft, purple glow.  No such glow exists for Hawkmoth himself, and when, weeks later, he’s well enough to explain the events of the past years, Nooroo simply says that any strength the wielder of the Butterfly Miraculous has is incidental, that it only does what it was meant to do; give away its own power.  It’s weeks more before Hawkmoth himself recovers from the fight.

**Author's Note:**

> Might edit this to include Queen Bee when we know more about how she operates.


End file.
